Language and tone in St Mary Magdalene

The language of nature

Much of the language of St Mary Magdalene derives from the poem's imagery. The diction is often of Nature: flowers especially, vines, April showers. Particularly, as we would expect from the central conceit, the nature diction centres on water: showers, dewdrops, streams, fountains, rivers. The human body is the source of much of this water, particularly the face, though the woman's face is left remarkably undetailed. There is a hint that her hair must be golden (Mary Magdalen was usually depicted in European paintings with the ‘flaming' hair of a harlot) There is a stereotyping of the female body that leaves it strangely characterless. Hair, eyes, cheeks are mentioned, but the point about these features is not to convey human characteristic or emotion, but just how capable they are of new conceits: that is, it is the idea of them that concerns Crashaw. Stanza 15 is a good example.

The language of wealth

There is diction to support images of worth, wealth and royalty. Also, of course, religious language: of Christ as ‘the lamb' (stanza 18); of heaven (for example stanza 12); but strangely, to Protestant ears anyway, mixed with talk of rather sensuous cherubs (stanza 5) and Cupids (stanza 18), the latter deriving from Roman mythology.

Sorrow is mythologised also (stanza 7) as a queen, if not a goddess. And this is typical of a tendency to personify. The tears are addressed at the end; the cheeks are addressed in stanza 15.

Investigating St Mary Magdalene

Consider the language of St Mary Magdalene

Explain ‘Balsom may be for their own greife' (stanza 10)

List words that have to do with lushness and profusion

List words that convey the idea of wealth

What is ultimately the value of the weeper's tears?

… and their worth?

Figure of speech in which a person or object or happening is described in terms of some other person, object or action, either by saying X is Y (metaphor); or X is like Y (simile). In each case, X is the original, Y is the image.

The choice of words a poet makes; his vocabulary and any special features of it.

An image that seems far-fetched or bizarre, but which is cleverly worked out so that the reader can understand the link.

1. Devout, involved in religious practice
2. Member of a religious order, a monk or nun.

Title (eventually used as name) given to Jesus, refering to an anointed person set apart for a special task such as a king.

The technical name for a verse, or a regular repeating unit of so many lines in a poem. Poetry can be stanzaic or non-stanzaic.

Each culture and belief-system has its own set of explanations and stories which deal with the creation of the world; the way the universe is upheld; the way God, or the gods, deal with humans; and how the particular culture or belief was founded.

A figure of speech where a non-person, for example an animal, the weather, or some inanimate object, is described as if it were a person, being given human qualities.